Italy's Salvini appears to postpone gov't crisis in surprise announcement

Source: Xinhua| 2019-08-14 01:18:03|Editor: yan
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ROME, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the rightwing, anti-immigrant League party, told the Senate on Tuesday that he is willing to vote on a reform that would reduce the number of members of parliament as long as this is followed by an immediate snap election.

This appears to postpone an impending government crisis, which Salvini unleashed last week when he announced his party had filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

The Senate assembled today to decide when to schedule a vote on the no-confidence motion.

Salvini, who also serves as deputy prime minister in Italy's current coalition government, last week also called for snap elections and said he would run for the post of prime minister.

Salvini has almost doubled his consensus to around 30 percent since June 2018, when he formed a coalition government with the populist Five-Star Movement, which has since halved its support to around 17 percent.

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